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Ontario moves toward merging school boards to save money

The province plans to &ldquo;move quickly&rdquo; to save $10.5 million on &ldquo;back-office&rdquo; costs in 2013, while preserving distinctions in the classroom.

By Kristin RushowyEducation Reporter

Tues., May 22, 2012

The province is moving fast to cut $10.5 million in education costs by merging school boards in 2013.

“We need to move quickly to meet the 2013-14 target, but it is equally important to involve you in the process and get it right,” Laurel Broten said in a recent letter to board chairs across the province.

“ ... While I have been clear that we have no intention of restructuring across the existing boundaries of faith or language, I still encourage you to continue the work you have been doing to find efficiencies in consolidating back-office activities.”

In the spring budget, the province identified school board amalgamations as a way to reduce administrative expenses, and said areas with low population growth and declining enrolment would be targeted — although boards will give input on other criteria to be used.

Broten has planned a teleconference next Tuesday and will hold consultations in June and throughout the summer. The savings are estimated to be $10.5 million in 2013, and $16.7 million in 2014.

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Talk of mergers comes as one public school board renewed a call to amalgamate the public and Catholic systems in its area.

A draft letter to Broten, to be voted on Thursday by the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board trustees, has “mostly to do with cost savings” as school populations decline, said Chair Diane Lloyd.

“We have two duplicate systems in every area of the province,” she added. “We’re saying that those two groups could work under one umbrella.”

Lloyd noted that most local public and Catholic boards already work together in some way, such as by sharing busing.

In an interview, Broten said she recently visited a new building in Brantford that houses a public and Catholic school together; they share a library, gym, teacher lunchroom and schoolyard, but have separate administrations.

She called that an “innovative approach” and said there are “lots of efficiencies” to be found. “It’s an important conversation to have across the province.”

Catherine Fife, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said the merger news caught boards by surprise.

“Boards are asking: What are the cost savings? Where is the business case?” for such a move, she said. Some boards already cover huge geographic areas, and low-enrolment Northern boards “have already found a lot of opportunities to share resources and share services.”

Mergers also lead to a loss of understanding of local issues. They could also “devastate communities” through loss of school board jobs, she added.

“You are not going to save on the educational side of it,” he added. “At the same time, it’s going to create a lot of havoc.”

But longtime proponents of a single school system — which would mean merging the English Catholic and public into one system, and the French Catholic and public into another — estimate the savings at $1.5 billion a year if implemented province-wide.

“It’s very encouraging that Kawartha Pine Ridge is bringing it up again — the province’s finances are a mess,” said Leonard Baak, of One School System.

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